Crusher



9 A. A. THOMPSON 2,050,743

CRUSHER Filed April 1, 1935 6- J1 l0 a 3 2/ /9 4 56 f j. j f: is i; 5 5

ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 11, 1936 UNETE TATES FATE or ies .2 Claims.

This invention relates to a crusher of the per-.

cussion type which may be used in comminuting rock or the like substances.

It is an object of the invention to provide a device of the character described which requires a minimum-of manual effort to operate.

Other objects of the invention are to provide a device which is readily portable; and to provide a device which is composed of but few working parts.

Referring to the drawing:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a manually operated crusher incorporating the principles of the invention.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the device of Figure 1.

During the present period of economic depression there has been, especially in California and other western states, a steady influx of unemployed persons to the gold fields, that is, the country in which producing mines, or streams in which free gold has been found, are located. These people, unable to find work at their chosen professions, turn to these fields, not with the hope of attaining sudden wealth, but with the hope that they can wrest from the hills and streams sufficient of the precious metal to provide them with food and clothing until conditions improve.

The majority of these amateur miners naturally choose the easiest method of searching for the gold, that of panning or washing the gravel of stream beds. However, since these streams have been panned continuously for years before, usually by persons more experienced than they, the amateurs realize small return, in the form of mineral values, for their labor.

The deficiency of free gold in the streams has therefore turned the majority of the miners to combing over the older portions of the dumps or tailings of producing mines since, due to the imperfect recovery methods used at the time that the ore was mined, there still remains in the ore, considerable values. Knowledge of this however is widespread throughout the gold fields with the result that the territories surrounding these dumps are either crowded with miners or are closed to them by the companies owning the land.

There is therefore only one other way left, in which the amateur may hope to wrest the gold from the ground, and that is by the so-called Hard rock method. There is present in these territories considerable quartz which contains such low percentages of values as to not warrant commercial operation by the large mining companies. There is, however, sufficient gold -in this quartz to purchase for the miner the food and other necessities that he desires, but this 5 entails hard work on his part. The'quartz must be crushed before the gold flakes can be separated therefrom and as this is usually done manually, by means of a hand hammer, it will be seen that the miner has to expend consider- 10 able energy in order to recover a small amount of mineral values.

The present invention is intended to provide the quartz miner with a device which will crush a larger quantity of the rock with a lesser ex- 15 'enditure of energy thereby allowing him to increase the possible amount of gold recovered in a given time.

In detail the device of the invention comprises a preferably wooden frame having four 20 vertically disposed legs 3 connected at their upper ends by a top rail 4. A pair of parallel cross rails 5 are positioned substantially midway of the length of the legs 3 and both these rails and the top rail are secured to the legs by 25 means of bolts 6 which permit .the frame to be readily dis-assembled for portage.

Secured by bolts l to the top rail is a bracket 8 having a pair of downwardly directed lugs 9 which carry a pair of spaced transverse bolts !0. 30 Lengths of block chain H are attached at one end to each of the bolts 5 U and hang downwardly in spaced relationship, the lower ends thereof being secured to bolts l2 which are carried by lugs is forming part of a sizeable metal hammer 35 it. The length of the chains It is such that the bottom face of the hammer rests on the surface of an anvil l5 which is conveniently formed of a rectangular section of steel boiler plate. 4.0

Positioned between the chains It is a shaft !6 provided with journals l? which are secured to each of the cross rails 5 by means of bolts E8. The shaft has, suitably secured thereto, a pair of spaced disks 19 joined at twodiametri- 45 cally opposed points by a pair of pins 20 upon which are journaled rollers 2!. The outer end of the shaft I6 is squared and fitted with a hand crank 22.

It will be seen, in Figure 1, that when the 50 shaft I6 is rotated by the crank, the rollers 2! will cause the two lengths of chain it to spread to the positions indicated by the dotted lines 23 whereupon the hammer will be raised to the position indicated by the dotted line 24. A con- 55 siderable gap then exists between the harmner and the anvil IS in which a piece of quartz or rock to be crushed may be placed. When the object is so placed the operator releases the crank whereupon the hammer will descend and strike the object; this procedure being followed until the object has been reduced to the desired fineness.

Due to the toggle action which exists when the chains are spread by the rollers it requires very little physical effort on the part of the operator to lift the hammer, in fact the latter may weigh several hundred pounds and still be lifted by the operator without undue effort on his part.

From the foregoing description of the invention it will be seen that there has been provided a device which will lessen the labor of persons engaged not only in hard rock mining but in other occupations requiring the comminution of materials which are not readily crushed. In addition to the labor saving features of the device, it is readily portable and may be disassembled and packed in a small space thus rendering it capable of being carried by the user or by a pack animal.

I claim:

1. A crusher comprising a fixed frame, a pair of chains secured in spaced relationship at one end thereof to said frame, a hammer secured to the other ends of said chains, a pair of spaced rollers disposed between said chains substantially midway between the points of attachment thereof with said frame and said hammer, and means for moving said rollers in an arcuate path about an axis midway therebetween to flex said chains and reciprocate said hammer.

2. A crusher comprising a fixed frame, a pair of chains secured in spaced relationship at one end thereof to said frame, a hammer secured to the other ends of said chains, a shaft journaled on said frame and. positioned betweerr said chains, a pair of parallelly disposed disks mounted for rotation with said shaft and positioned at each side of said chains, a pair of rollers journaled on said disks in diametrically opposed positions between said chains, and a crank for rotating said shaft and for moving said rollers along an arcuate path between said chains whereby the spacing between said chains is increased and the hammer raised.

ARTHUR A. THOMPSON. 

